Massive land grabs happening in South Africa

Groups of people all over South Africa are occupying land illegally. This comes after the newly elected president of South Africa – Cyril Ramaphosa – told supporters the government now supports the “Expropriation of land without compensation”.

One group of people grabbing land in Olivenhoutbosch, which is situated near the town of Centurion, says their local Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader told them to take the plot. According to reports, the Olivenhoutbosch land grabs have been going on for at least 3 days now.

Another big land grab is happening at East Lynne near Pretoria:

Video- Large scale land grabs in East Lynne near Pretoria.Hundreds of land grabbers have started illegally occupying land in East Lynne. This is an hostile takeover! pic.twitter.com/Nw0DRqlN8D

Hundreds of illegal squatters have started occupying land in East Lynne on Saturday. As can be seen from the video, these land grabbers drive brand new pick-up trucks and are not poor, as some reports may suggest.

The group occupying this area is said to have already erected about 20 shacks by Sunday morning. Violence is rife as the land grabbers clash with each other and the police.

The President condemned the incidents, saying government will act against lawlessness:

“That is a clear sign of disorder, clear sign of violating not only the law but other people’s rights. We’ve all agreed that South Africa is a country of rule of law, and all of us agreed that we should not tolerate disorder and lawlessness of that type.”

This comes as an ironic surprise, as it was Ramaphosa who originally aired his support for land grabbing.